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Wednesday, September 4, 2013

City Debuts Renderings of Airport Rental Structure

The Consolidated Rental Car Facility at the El Paso airport will have a three level parking structure. A covered pathway will take travelers to and from the baggage claim area. (Rendering courtesy of City of El Paso)

Public Art One of Project Highlights

New renderings provided by the City show what the future rental garage will look like at the El Paso International Airport. The structure, officially called the El Paso Consolidated Rental Car Facility, or CONRAC for short, will also include a City-commissioned piece of public art that will hang in the lobby.

The lobby of the CONRAC structure will be three levels high. (Rendering courtesy City of El Paso)

The CONRAC structure will be a three level parking structure at the airport which will be used by rental car companies for pick up and return of automobiles used by travelers. It will include 650-700 parking stalls and was designed using smart growth principles, including a focus on pedestrian accessibility.

Included in the structure will be Ready and Return areas, customer kiosks, fueling and car wash areas, a light maintenance facility, and vehicle storage for use by the rental companies. The architectural design is by Demattei Wong Architecture, Inc. of California under a contract approved by the City last October.

This rendering shows what the culturally-inspired Mandala will look like when seen from directly below. (metalabstudio.com)

Inside the three-level tall lobby of the CONRAC will hang a public art piece that will float above travelers’ heads. A three-dimensional “Mandala” will incorporate iconography from El Paso’s mix of cultures using multiple colors to suggest a sunset, according to the website for the co-designer, MetaLab Studio of Houston (metalabstudio.com). MetaLab designed the piece in collaboration with RE:site Studio.

The CONRAC facility will be located immediately to the west of the terminal's baggage claim. (Rendering courtesy of City of El Paso)

Construction should begin within a year on the $45 million CONRAC project, according to the Department of Aviation’s Capital Improvement Plan revealed last month. The structure will be located immediately to the west of the baggage claim area of the airport terminal.